Kyle Kacal

Kyle Jerome Kacal (born December 26, 1969)^[1] is a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 12, which includes parts of Brazos and McLennan counties as well as the smaller Falls, Limestone, and Robertson counties in the east central portion of the state.

Background[]

Kacal is a native of Pearland in Brazoria County near Houston, Texas.^[1] He graduated in 1992 from Texas A&M University in College Station and thereafter obtained a certificate of ranch management from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. He raises cattle and leases his land during spring and autumn to hunters.^[2] His Tonkaway Ranch is especially known for quail hunting and trapshooting.^[3]

Kacal and his wife, Marci, have two children, a son, Carter, and a daughter, Kendall, who attend the private Allen Academy in Bryan, the city adjacent to College Station. Kacal is a trustee of Allen Academy. The Kacals are active in St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in College Station.^[2]

Kacal is a former salesman for Jefferson-Pilot Life Insurance Company in College Station. He is a member of the Brazos Valley Farm Bureau.^[1]

Political life[]

Kacal ran for the legislature in 2012, when the one-term Republican incumbent James E. White, an African American, declined to seek reelection in the revised District 12. Instead White won reelection in the mostly rural District 19. Kacal won the Republican runoff election on July 31, 2012, when he narrowly defeated Tucker Anderson (born 1977) of College Station, 4,230 (50.9 percent) to 4,084 (49.1 percent).^[4] In the general election, Kacal defeated Democrat Robert Stem, 28,762 (56.9 percent) to 21,793 (43.1 percent).^[5]

Representative Kacal is a member of two House committees: Agriculture & Livestock and Environmental Regulation, both affiliated with his particular areas of expertise.^[1]

In his first legislative session in 2013, Kacal focused the bills that he authored on his areas of personal knowledge which include Agriculture and Conservation. A few examples include: HB2311 which limited the authority of the Texas Animal Health Commission to create burdensome policies while also maintain their ability to respond to disease outbreak; HB 2312 which created a structure for a Texas Beef Check-off program, a program that would later be started by a referendum of cattle producers in the state; and HB 1182 which required state agencies to create their own goals for reduction in use of natural resources including water.^[6]

On one of the most visible pieces of legislation, HB 2, Kacal voted along with the Republicans to increase abortion restrictions as well as measures that restricted doctors from performing abortion facilities.^[7] In 2016, the Texas law was struck down by the United States Supreme Court as unconstitutional.^[8]

Kacal supported a taxpayer-funded breakfast program for public schools; the measure passed the House, 73–58. Kacal supported legislation to provide marshals for school security. He did not vote regarding the immunization of minors without parental consent, a measure which the House nevertheless approved, 71–61. He co-sponsored the law to extend the franchise tax exemption to certain businesses. Kacal did not vote on the measure to prohibit texting while driving. He voted to require drug testing for those receiving unemployment compensation. He voted against an "equal pay for women" measure, which passed the House, 78–61. He voted to forbid the state from enforcing federal regulations of firearms and in support of another law allowing college and university officials to carry concealed weapons. He voted for the redistricting bills for the state House, the Texas Senate, and the United States House of Representatives.^[9]

In the primary election on March 4, 2014, Kacal, in his bid for a second term, defeated a former opponent from the 2012 primary, Timothy Allen Delasandro of College Station, who had polled 12 percent of the ballots cast in the earlier contest.^[10] Kacal in 2014 received 7,492 votes (76.3 percent) to Delasandro's 2,328 (23.7 percent).^[11]

Kacal won his fourth legislative term in the general election held on November 6, 2018. With 33,003 votes (67.6 percent), he defeated Democrat Marianne Arnold, who polled 15,828 votes (32.4 percent).^[12]

References[]

External links[]

• Campaign website
• State legislative page
• Kyle Kacal at the Texas Tribune